The online shooter Destiny 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) has a clearly identifiable huge problem in the endgame, but can Bungie solve this with the DLC Curse of Osiris in December?
Veterans of Destiny 1 have seen the central problem of Destiny 2 coming early: Due to the removal of random rolls on weapons you only need to obtain each item in Destiny 2 once. Because it only exists in exactly one version, the perks are fixed.
The central criticism of Destiny 2 is thus: The endgame is missing.
Bungie wanted to transform Destiny 2 into a “collecting game” but significantly reduced the collecting aspect.
160 weapons instead of 1800 variants – Destiny 2 cuts back as a collecting game
On reddit, a player calculated:
- Vanilla Destiny 2 has 160 legendary weapons with fixed perks.
- Vanilla Destiny 1 only had 60, but due to the random rolls, there were 1800 variants.
The removal of random rolls eliminates the collecting aspect of Destiny 2. Hardcore players quickly fill their inventory with all items and have no reason to continue playing. In Destiny 1, you could always exchange specific weapons for better versions of the same weapon. The inventory took ages to fill. Players had goals.
In Destiny 1, there was no real reason to collect optimal items. There was nothing in Destiny that required a “perfect weapon collection.” Players simply wanted it and played the same content for hundreds of hours. That was okay because the gunplay was so fantastic.
These contents are also available in Destiny 2, the gunplay is still fantastic, only the reason to replay the content is missing.
The silence of the developers
At Bungie, it has been known for a while that there would be problems here. They promised to develop “exciting ideas” to make duplicate items more interesting. However, these ideas have apparently never made their way into the game.
A discussion about this has been lacking from Bungie.
Instead, player dissatisfaction grew louder, and finally, at the end of October, the announcement came: “To find new systems and rewards to give the most engaged players something to do.”
But since then, Bungie has remained silent on that topic.
Curse of Osiris too long in development
On December 5th, the first DLC for Destiny 2, Curse of Osiris, is set to be released. The English-speaking site PC Gamer had the opportunity to play this DLC, but due to a complicated confidentiality agreement, they are not free to report fully on it.
However, they warn fans not to expect the DLC to fix the endgame of Destiny 2 on its own. According to PC Gamer, this DLC has been in development for a long time and one cannot expect that player feedback on Destiny 2 will be fully addressed.
However, there is hope. PC Gamer speaks of an “update” that the live team of Destiny 2 is working on. This should include “some of the balance changes” that Bungie has hinted at.
This is the “Season” update, which is also supposed to bring numerous new items and restock the cash shop.
Interestingly, the savior of Destiny 2 seems to be Chris Barrett, the Game Director of House of Wolves and Rise of Iron. We thought until now that he could also be the Game Director of “Curse of Osiris”. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. In the last stream, Dan Miller was revealed as the Game Director.
He has also been with Bungie for a long time, having been a mission designer for Halo 10 years ago, and is now apparently stepping into a leadership role for the first time.
Barrett has a different position.
This could mean at best that Chris Barrett has moved to the live team and is working to fix Destiny 2. We prefer not to think about the worst-case scenario. That would anticipate a solution only later in 2018.
Curse of Osiris will not solve the endgame problem. However, there is a small chance that the accompanying free patch will address some of the issues.
When can we expect new information about the endgame?
It is crucial for Bungie to finally lay out solutions and a timeline. Tonight’s stream should not be expected to bring much news. Hopes rest on the stream about the gear next week or a straightforward announcement for the free update on a Thursday evening in “This week at Bungie.”
We at Mein MMO keep you updated. We will accompany tonight’s stream about “new ways to play” with a live ticker starting at 8 PM.
